After struggling throughout 2025, Counter-Strike analysts and fans alike said that the FaZe Clan magic was dead – but the StarLadder Budapest Major proved there was life in the old dog yet. Though, is it a return to form, or a temporary moment of magic in the organization’s books?

Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski had struggled on the team, and even Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev couldn’t save them. With Havard “rain” Nygaard exiting the team in November and his replacement, Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski, struggling along Helvjis “broky” Saukants, people were beginning to suspect the Budapest Major might just be IGL Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s last tournament as a professional player.

It almost looked like the veteran Dane would bow out in embarrassing fashion, too. FaZe were less than half a second away from being eliminated in a Stage 1 1-2 game versus RED Canids, and had Allan “history” Lawrenz remembered he had a smoke grenade during his defuse attempt, that would have likely been all she wrote for FaZe in Budapest.

But history didn’t remember he had that grenade. Then, in their very next game, FaZe found themselves on the brink of elimination once more against Fluxo, but a nine-round winning streak saw FaZe clinch it. And the rest, as they ironically say, is history. 

It was a dance with death that empowered FaZe Clan, reigniting something in them that had seldom been seen in 2025. A touch of magic, a clutch gene, or simply, a FaZe b*llshit. Whatever your preferred term for it is, it began a Major run that will go down in history – the first team to go from Stage 1 all the way to the Major final. 

But how did they do it?

A Return to Form

One of the biggest reasons for the FaZe fight back is broky. The Latvian Laser had been poor throughout 2025, his form is what led to his temporary benching earlier in the year. There had been flashes of brilliance since his return, but nothing quite like what he captured during their Major. 

From a now-average 0.96 rating in Stage 1, broky began to show some class in Stage 2, jumping slightly to 1.01 following a 1.49 rated game versus Passion UA. Stage 3 was where he really began to shine, though, ending the Swiss Stage with a 1.19 rating after strong performances against The MongolZ and 3DMAX.

That form continued in the playoffs, too. Although he was quiet for two maps in the semi-final versus NAVI, alongside David “frozen” Cernansky he was one of the only players to show up in two of the maps against Vitality in the grand final, and was instrumental in the team getting past MOUZ during the quarters. 

FaZe’s heavily criticised rookie, jcobbb, also saw his form take a huge upturn in the latter stages. The young Pole also struggled in Stage 1 at 0.97, but went up to 1.25 and 1.24 in Stage 2 and Stage 3 respectively. 

jcobbb’s greatest value during the FaZe run came during pistol rounds. He ended Stage 3 and playoffs with a 1.98 pistol round rating – second only to Danil “donk” Kryshkovets – which is especially impressive when you factor in that he played seven more maps than donk, and 11 more maps than the next closest player, David “dav1deuS” Tapia Maldonado. 

There’s also something to be said for the quality of IGLing out of karrigan. Whilst the value of such players is largely based on intangibles, it was clear just how strong the game plans were on Nuke. FaZe ran through multiple teams on the map, including MOUZ and Vitality twice, with both teams looking helpless as they were consistently played out of positions. 

Even outside of the solid anti-stratting that had been going on, player cams once again made the strength of karrigan as a captain clear. The Major-winner never once let his spirits seem broken during harder games and always hyped up his team. Their final map of the tournament exemplified this more than any other; the Dane could be seen laughing in the face of defeat even as FaZe went 11-1 down. 

The main thing, though, was that FaZe were just winning rounds in the FaZe way again. If you’ve been around Counter-Strike for a while, you know what we mean. It’s a manner of winning man-down situations in a way that only FaZe does. Rounds that are completely unlikely, yet always somehow feel probable.

However, there is a problem with that. 

Regression to the Mean

The problem is that the playstyle isn’t consistent. It never has been. It’s why FaZe have always been so streaky. 

Playing for 3vX situations is great when your stars are all firing, broky, Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, and Robin “ropz” Kool all doing so for six months straight saw them win nearly everything in the first half of 2022, but the inconsistency that comes with the downturn in form is what cost them two of those stars in the years since.

There’s also just the inconsistency of broky to worry about. The Latvian is instrumental to FaZe’s style of play and was for their Major run, so what happens when his rating regresses back to his 2025 average of 1.04?

jcobbb is also a concern. Australian analyst Chris “elmapuddy” Tebbit has already exposed how Vitality was able to bully him on Overpass in order to win the Major, and his CT performances can be concerning on other maps as well. It’s all part and parcel of the step up to tier one and the Major showed promising signs of development, but with a different tournament every week, Counter-Strike cares more about consistency over much longer periods of time than the Major.

Just look at Ivan “zweihh” Gogin, who has already been benched by Team Spirit despite being the main reason they were able to push past Falcons during the quarter-finals.

At least pistol rounds are something they can rely on. In the last three months, FaZe have three of the top 12 pistol round players in jcobbb, Twistzz, and frozen. It’s a strength that has given them a 62.2% pistol win rate in that time, second only to MOUZ. If they can improve their Round 2 conversion rates to get in line with the other top teams, we may see this form continue for a little while longer.